Settler spectacle sails into summer
Jamestown's quadricentennial bash may be past, but the commemorations, exhibits and festivals go on
Date published: 5/20/2007
By CLINT SCHEMMER
JAMESTOWN--At Anniversary Park, the flags are furled, the tents have been struck and the crowds are long gone.
But Jamestown-related events, including several in the Fredericksburg area, will continue all summer.
In case you missed the May 11-13 hoopla over the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in America, the Jamestown 2007 team is busy editing a one-hour TV special on Anniversary Weekend and the quadricentennial's major themes.
The nationally syndicated show will be broadcast between Memorial Day and July Fourth by Virginia's four CBS stations and other affiliates across the nation.
"This past weekend was kind of our Super Bowl, the centerpiece of the commemoration," said Ross Richardson, Jamestown 2007's director of marketing. "It continues to this fall, so our work is far from done."
The's true for groups and institutions around the state.
For those interested in how English exploration opened up the New World, the Fredericksburg Area Museum is now hosting "The Cartographer's Perspective: Four Centuries of Virginia Maps." This new exhibit explores how we view our world, from Capt. John Smith's famed 1660 map of the Chesapeake Bay region to 18th-century Virginia gazeteers to Civil War soldiers' drawings to Global Positioning System technology.
Through Tuesday, the new Godspeed replica will continue the "Journey up the James" it began last month, landing in Henricus--where Pocahontas married English settler John Rolfe, the man who kicked off Virginia's tobacco boom. The ship is following the May 1607 route of English explorer Christopher Newport and his crew, who left Jamestown and made their way upriver to Henricus, which became the second successful English city in the New World.
The sailing ship will visit Richmond May 24-26 for a festival with live music Friday night, a Richmond Symphony serenade Saturday night and a fireworks show to cap it off. At each stop in the Godspeed's journey, people are invited to come aboard after it docks and enjoy the festivities' music, art and cultural activities.
June will be full of Jamestown activities, many with a nautical theme linked to Smith's explorations of the Chesapeake in the summer of 1608.
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In Deltaville on Aug. 25-26, Capt. Ian Bystrom and crew of the John Smith 400 Project's shallop will pay homage to Smith's painful brush with a stingray at Stingray Point. All three replica shallops built on the bay, including those from the Deltaville Maritime Museum and the Reedville Fishermen's Museum, will gather to honor that bit of history.
The "World of 1607" is on view at the Jamestown Settlement Museum near Williamsburg until next April. The special exhibition puts America's first permanent English colony in a global context, explaining the bigger race for discovery and commerce of which it was a part. Artifacts from collections around the world include a 15th-century copy of the Magna Carta, a 16th-century African ivory carving and items from the Virginia Company, the enterprise that bankrolled the Jamestown settlers.
At the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, "Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend" ends June 24. The show explores many questions about the Powhatan youth who witnessed the collision of two cultures. The exhibition features more than 60 objects, including paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculpture, artifacts, books, manuscripts, broadsides and sheet music.
A second VHS exhibit, "Jamestown, Quebec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings," surveys the simultaneous colonization of America north of Mexico by three world powers. Displaying 150 rare European and American Indian artifacts from this early period, it tells the stories of the first permanent English settlement in 1607, the first permanent French settlement in 1608 and the chartering of the first villa in New Mexico in 1609. The show ends Sept. 3.
Thousands of people will learn about Jamestown's 400th anniversary and Virginia culture during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on Washington's National Mall on June 27-July 1 and July 4-8.
Virginia's eight recognized Indian tribes have invited tribes from across America to showcase their stories July 21-22 during the American Indian Intertribal Cultural Festival at the Hampton Convention Center.
Black Americans will highlight their contributions to American society over the past 400 years during the Virginia Black Expo: A Cultural and Commerce Exposition in Hampton Aug. 24-25.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will welcome leaders and students from dozens of democracies around the world to Williamsburg on Sept. 16-19. Hosted by Colonial Williamsburg and the College of William & Mary, The Forum on the Future of Democracy will culminate a yearlong, international series of Jamestown conferences. It won't be open to the public.
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Date published: 5/20/2007
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